I'm pretty sure they target cities. Just not outposts/resources. Basically, since they are monsters, they don't really care about resources... they are just out to kill things... units, people, etc.

Monsters tend to wander sqaure to sqaure. However soemtimes they will specifically go after a unit. I have seen them go specifically for outpost/monuments many times. Cities is more of a wander randomly into the tile.

You are forgeting one aspect of the game. If a city is destroyed then that tile is not usable anymore. So basiclaly the AI would simply send anothe rpioneer to the next available tile and so on. You would end up with huge areas the ai can not build in. That would destroy AI growth between constant loss of cities and losing buildable tiles.

No

They should, but it should be based on type of monster and the reason they are there.

Spiders, Wolves, and Bears should never break resources, they should just attack weak units nearby or stay in their homes.

Bandits should break undefended resources over a broad area around their lair, and should respawn lairs in uncontrolled areas of the map.

Higher-call intelligent creates should attack undefended resources near their lairs, and go after lightly defended nearby features when their lair is broken, creating a new lair if they kill the thing that "woke them up"

I find that the monsters consistently go after my outposts and resources while ignoring the AI-owned  outposts and resources.  This is extremely frustrating in my opinion.

I agree with Malsqueek in that beasts (bears, wolves, spiders, etc.) should generally avoid outposts and resource operations while focusing on units weaker than themselves.  I also like the idea of a territorial "radius" for bandits and lair-based monsters.

That said, I can see room for more nomadic monsters bent on destruction, such as dragons and the like.  If there is too many, however, initially developing your empire can be frustrating and problematic.  Try defending that life node against a Slag beast when all you have is one or two cavemen with clubs and no armour.  One of my starting areas had no less than 6 Slag beasts in the general starting area...

That really depends upon the turn.

Getting a dragon in your grill on Spring of 174 sucks bad.

Another 70 turns later, you might be hoping it attacks you, but in your city, and another 40 after that you will be excited to fight a dragon wherever.

Looking at your turn, had you gone a production-high, military-quality-heavy build for your empire AND have a couple units and two good champions on hand, that dragon is a good fight.

Alas my heavy armor was at the other end of the map trying to clear a hoarder spider so I could establish another settlement - that job required all the muscle I could muster. It still wouldn't be enough to stop this beast but might have softened him up enough so the city defenders could deal with him. (The city has a hedge and 3 squads of Defenders - it's hard to come up with the cash to defend them better than that at this stage of the game). This is extreme but I find .915 has strong or deadly monsters just about everywhere I want to settle, they will attack and it takes time to build the strength to deal with them. And I'm still playing on EASY - hats off to those who can beat this game on HARD!

I'm finally starting to accept the fact that the "No Taxes until you are out of money" and "Use your early mana income to boost production and research" strategies are essentially required for any kind of start to completing with the AI. Try those and you should be competing pretty well on normal or challenging in no time. I hate being shoehorned into it, but it works REALLY well.

True, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.

This, pretty much.  Note that you can actually have low taxes once you're running low on money (single digits of Gildar) on Easy and still have a decent time, but casting Inspiration on your starting city is almost mandatory at the moment.  Once you get 2 or 3 settlements up and running, you'll likely easily outpace the AI at the easier difficulty levels.

I never adjust taxes and often forget (for a few turns) to cast Inspiration(or what its called, the one that gives extra mana) at the start. Still, the game is quite forgiving even on higher difficulty levels. This will be true until the AI starts to field tougher stuff. That means the AI must field full armies and do some two front attacks to overextend my main army. The AI should be at my gates when declaring war. If not ready then they should not declare, cause I will then use the war to get a couple of cities.

The AI isn't an issue for me. After 4 years playing GalCiv2, I know the AI will outproduce me in the early game. If I survive the early game, I will catch up and move to the front during the midgame. I also know how the AI does it and am not interested in playing it's game in an effort to match it's early growth. The solution I found for GalCiv2, that seems to be working in FE, is large map - small number of opponents. Having some space between neighbors means you have time to explore, settle, do some research and build your strength before meeting the other factions. As I get better, I'll add more factions and increase the difficulty level but, for now - I need to figure out the monsters. They aren't just local color - they severely impact your ability to expand and force you to invest heavily in a rear guard to protect your flanks.

This is the first game I've played where it's normal to have deadly monsters camped on your doorstep at turn 1. In .915, I don't think I've ever been able to establish a second settlement without killing at least a medium monster. This takes time and money - Champions need good equipment, sometimes goodie huts are obliging, sometimes you have to buy it. Soldiers need to be trained and paid - few things will put you into the red faster than a few squads of defenders - even at a normal tax rate. If the monsters treat the AI differently than the player, it will boost the AI's ability to expand in a way that you can't compensate for by adjusting taxes.

I'm OK with tough monsters in the early game and really don't care if they leave the AI alone as long as balance is adjusted so the player has a chance to get established and grow. That should be true for any faction using default settings because those are the settings new players will use and the last thing you want is for them to get frustrated and abandon the game. On average I think late game monsters need to be tougher, I've only encountered one I couldn't handle (made the mistake of completing the Dragon's Eye quest a couple of weeks ago - imagine facing an entire flock of beasts like the one pictured above).

Speaking of the dragon, I think the developers need to make sure the monsters are appropriate for where they appear in the game and for the difficulty level the player has chosen. By all means tough - but not impossible. This is, after all a game - it's supposed to be fun!

I soo want that slider you're talking about...... max agro..... max randomness